R.K. Narayan

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R.K. Narayan 
(1906-2001) 

  •  Rasipuram (Name of his Village) Krishnaswami (Name of his father) Iyer Narayan Swami was an Indian writer best known for his works set in the fictional south Indian town of Malgudi.
  •  R.K. Narayan is one of the three leading figures of early Indian literature in English (alongside Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao) and is credited with bringing the genre to the rest of the world. The debut novel of R.K.Narayan is Swami and Friends (1935).
  •  Graham Greene was his mentor and friend who was instrumental in getting publishers for Narayan’s first four books including semi-autobiographical trilogy of : 
  1. Swami and Friends
  2.  The Bachelor of Arts
  3. The English Teacher 
  • His is well known for The Financial Expert (1951), and Sahita Akademi Award Winner “The Guide” which was adopted for the film.
  •  He is compared to William Faulkner, who also created a fictional town that stood for the reality, brought out the humour and energy of ordinary life.
  •  He was awarded with Padam Bhusan and Padam Vibhusan award. He was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha. 
  •  His fictional semi-urban town in Southern town Malgudi was created in Sept 1930 on Vijayadashmi to start new efforts.
  •  He has created an identifiable imagined locale.

Important Works of R.K.Narayan 

Important Novels 
 
1. Swami And Friends (1935)
2. The Bachelor of Arts (1937)
3. The Dark Room (1938)
4. The English Teacher 
5. Mr. Sampath: The Printer of Malgudi (1948)
6. The Financial Expert (1952)
7. Waiting For the Mahatma (1955) (It is A Partition Novel)
8. The Guide (1958)
9. The Man-Eater of Malgudi (1961)
10. The Vendor of Sweets (1967); Protagonist- Jagan
11. The Painter of Signs (1977)
12. A Tiger for Malgudi (1983); Protagonist- Raja


 Important short story collection

  1. Malgudi Days (1942 ); It contains 9 stories.
  2.  An Astrologer Day (1947); It contains 30 stories.
  3.  Under the Bunyan Trees and Other Stories (1985).
  4. A Horse and Two Goats
Important Non-Fictions 

  1. My Dateless Diary
  2. Reluctant Guru
  3.  My Days (1974) ; It’s an autobiography
  4.  A Winter Nightmare (1998)
Swami And Friends (1935) 

  •  It is the first novel of the trilogy written by R.K.Narayan.
  •  The novel is set in British India in a fictional town Malgudi. Graham Greene helped to publish this book.
  •  Malgudi Schooldays is a slightly abridged version of Swami and Friends and it includes two additional stories featuring Swami from Malgudi Days and Under the Banyan Tree.
Plot 
 
  • In the autumn of 1930, the novel was started.
  •  It was as if a window had opened and through Narayan saw a little town and its railway station, The Mempi Forest, the Nallapa’s Grove, the Albert Mission School, Market Road and the River Sarayu. Its inhabitant appeared and Malgudi was borned.
  •  Swami feels oppressed by the authority at school. He has great infatuation with Rajam, the police officer’s son with his Bungalow and toy rail engine; the symbol of the world of Colonial Progress and modernity that Swami too is asked to enter.
  •  Swami’s greatest source of fear in Malgudi is the low-caste, slum dwelling ball boy at his father’s tennis club.
  •  The four principle friends Somu, Sankar, Mani and Pea. 
  •  Initially Swaminathan and Mani despise Rajam, but the three boys become friends after confronting him.
  • Rajam become the de-facto leader of all six boys.
  •  When Swaminathan joins a mob protesting the recent arrest of a prominent Indian politician in Malgudi, his life changes forever.
  •  Inflamed and intoxicated by the mob’s rationalist fervor, Swaminathan shatters the window of his headmaster’s office with a thrown rock.
  • The crowd is dispersed by Rajam’s father, there are grave consequences.
  •  Several people are injured in the violence and Swaminathan’s participations in the violence not only forces him to switch schools, but upsets Rajam, creating a rift in the friendship.
  •  Ultimately Swaminathan atones for the regretful actions, earning Rajam’s forgiveness.
  •  Seeking a less destructive means to channel his passion, Swaminathan decides to join Rajam in founding a new cricket team called the M.C.C. (Malgudi Cricket Club).
  •  A match is scheduled between the M.C.C and another local youth team called Y.M.U.
  •  M.C.C wins the match and Swaminathan collapses with exhaustion.
THE GUIDE (1958) 

  •  This novel is also based on the fictional town Malgudi, in South India.
  •  The novel describes the transformation of the protagonist Raju, from a tour guide to a spiritual guide and then of the greatest holy man of India.
  •  Narayan, won the Sahitya Akademi Award for this novel.
Plot 
 
  • Railway Raju (nicknamed) is a disarmingly corrupt guide who falls in love with a beautiful dancer Rosie, the neglected wife of archeologist Marco.
  • Rosie is encouraged by Raju, to follow her dreams by starting her career as a dancer while Marco does not approve her passion for dancing. 
  •  Raju’s mother does not approve the relationship of Rosie and Raju and thus she leaves them.
  •  Rosie soon becomes a successful dancer with Raju’s marketing tactics.
  •  Now, Raju develops a sense of self-importance and tries to control her.
  •  Raju gets involved in a case of forgery and gets two years sentence.
  •  After completing the sentence, Raju passes through a village where he is mistaken for a ‘Sadhu’.
  •  Reluctantly, as he does not want to return to Malgudi, he stays in an abandoned temple.
  • There is a famine in the village and Raju is expected to keep a fast in order to make it rain.
  •  ‘Raju’ confesses the entire truth about his past to Velan, who mistakes Raju as a Sadhu.
  •  Media publicizes his fast and after fasting for several days, he goes to the river side one morning as a part of his daily ritual where his legs sag down as he falls, that the rain is falling in the hills.
  • The novel ends leaving unanswered the question of whether he died or whether the drought has really ended.
The Man Eater of Malgudi (1961) 

  •  The novel tells the story of a painter Natraj, who lives in Malgudi and spends his time in the company of his two friends a poet and a journalist. The theme of the novel is self-destruction.
  • Vasu- a taxidermist, villain of the novel, and the man eater of Malgudi.
  •  Kumar is the name of the elephant
  •  Rangi- a prostitute who has an affair with Vasu
  •  Narayan’s depiction, about Vasu :
“Every demon carries within him unknown to himself, a tiny seed of self-destruction and goes up in thin air the most unexpected moment”.

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